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682 The Writing on the Wall
tro-Hungarian flag would disappear entirely from the Mediterranean.1551 Furthermore,
if at least some of the German boats were to continue to do so, it would be easier to
conceal the number of German submarines. On 10 September 1916, therefore, six Ger-
man submarines were officially added to the list of the Imperial and Royal Navy with a
pre-dated note. Three other submarines were excluded, however.
The great German successes and the far lesser ones of the Imperial and Royal sub-
marines naturally gave pause for thought, and played a role in the discussions sur-
rounding the unrestricted submarine war. Perhaps it was also indeed not that simple
to acknowledge the significance of unrestricted submarine warfare and to balance the
number of successes against the political implications. Also, it was impossible to predict
that the Germans would not keep to their promise of deploying over 40 submarines in
the Mediterranean. However, as is frequently the case on such occasions, figures were
suddenly being thrown about, and what was technically feasible was also presented as
being possible to put into practice in everyday warfare. The politicians, who were loath
to take a stance, suddenly withdrew from the debate, claiming that they were not spe-
cialists in the field, and purported to be unable to make any statements. Ultimately, they
came to accept the idea, or agreed to it out of complete conviction. With the extension
of the unrestricted submarine war to the Mediterranean, it was, with the exception
of a narrow shipping lane along the African coast for use by the neutral countries, to
become a maritime exclusion area in which torpedo attacks were made indiscriminately.
From 1 February 1917 onwards, the war would of necessity assume a different nature.
Czernin refused to believe that this was the case, however. Since an American at-
tempt at brokering peace between the major alliances had become obsolete, Emperor
Karl turned to the Spanish Monarch, King Alfonso XIII, who was a distant relative.
He was also happy to act as arbitrator. One difficulty was posed by the Spanish Prime
Minister, Count Alvaro de Romañones. However, since he was known to be open to
bribery, Czernin was prepared to buy him out if necessary. From now on, the formula
that Austrian foreign policy was keen to put into effect under Czernin was consistently
‘no victor and no loser’.1552 The difference between this and the phrase being used si-
multaneously by Wilson was that by this, Czernin meant that Europe could be brought
back approximately to the state of affairs that had existed before the unleashing of the
war, while Wilson desired a new peace order, taking as its basis the dissolution of inter-
and intrastate traditions in Europe.
The German government was anything but pleased with the new line taken by Aus-
tria. In particular, it was suspicious of the continuation of diplomatic links between
the Danube Monarchy and the USA, which had even intensified, since precisely at
the time when diplomatic relations were broken off between Washington and Berlin,
Austria sent an ambassador, Count Tarnowski, to the USA, thus ending a state of affairs
that had lasted fourteen months, in which Austria-Hungary was only represented by
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Titel
- THE FIRST WORLD WAR
- Untertitel
- and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Autor
- Manfried Rauchensteiner
- Verlag
- Böhlau Verlag
- Ort
- Wien
- Datum
- 2014
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-79588-9
- Abmessungen
- 17.0 x 24.0 cm
- Seiten
- 1192
- Kategorien
- Geschichte Vor 1918
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- 1 On the Eve 11
- 2 Two Million Men for the War 49
- 3 Bloody Sundays 81
- 4 Unleashing the War 117
- 5 ‘Thank God, this is the Great War!’ 157
- 6 Adjusting to a Longer War 197
- 7 The End of the Euphoria 239
- 8 The First Winter of the War 283
- 9 Under Surveillance 317
- 10 ‘The King of Italy has declared war on Me’ 355
- 11 The Third Front 383
- 12 Factory War and Domestic Front, 1915 413
- 13 Summer Battle and ‘Autumn Swine’ 441
- 14 War Aims and Central Europe 469
- 15 South Tyrol : The End of an Illusion (I) 497
- 16 Lutsk :The End of an Illusion (II) 521
- 17 How is a War Financed ? 555
- 18 The Nameless 583
- 19 The Death of the Old Emperor 607
- 20 Emperor Karl 641
- 21 The Writing on the Wall 657
- 22 The Consequences of the Russian February Revolution 691
- 23 Summer 1917 713
- 24 Kerensky Offensive and Peace Efforts 743
- 25 The Pyrrhic Victory : The Breakthrough Battle of Flitsch-Tolmein 769
- 26 Camps 803
- 27 Peace Feelers in the Shadow of Brest-Litovsk 845
- 28 The Inner Front 869
- 29 The June Battle in Veneto 895
- 30 An Empire Resigns 927
- 31 The Twilight Empire 955
- 32 The War becomes History 983
- Epilogue 1011
- Afterword 1013
- Acknowledgements and Dedication 1019
- Notes 1023
- Selected Printed Sources and Literature 1115
- Index of People and Places 1155